1. Field of the Disclosure
This application relates generally to lawn maintenance vehicles, and more specifically to a lawn maintenance vehicle including an electric motor powering a traction drive device and an implement.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently available lawn maintenance vehicles (e.g., garden tractors or riding mowers) are generally provided with combinations of 1) electric traction and implement drive powered by stored energy devices with multiple electric motors, 2) electric traction drives and mechanical implement drives powered by internal combustion engines coupled to generators/alternators, and 3) mechanical traction drive and electrical implement drives powered by internal combustion engines coupled to generators/alternators (sometimes with batteries).
The above configurations typically require expensive traction and implement drive motors and speed/power controllers. The motors are variable speed which means that they are operated for periods of time at non-optimal efficiencies. Motors sometime directly drive the implement and/or traction drives, which require that they be robust enough to accommodate the shock and strength requirements. The motor controllers consume energy that could be used to extend the operating time/range of the machines. Furthermore, wiring, switching contactors, and connections tend to be complex and expensive. Internal combustion engines coupled to generators/alternators are also relatively expensive, especially when they are of the higher efficiency ranges. They also tend to be heavy (adding to the overall machine mass) which negatively affects energy consumption. Accordingly, improvements to electric lawn maintenance vehicles are desired.